“The Morning After”

John E. Harmon, Sr., IOM |
12/23/2016, 6:15 a.m.

John E. Harmon, Sr

The phrase “The Morning After” typically implies a reference to a previous experience, of which the outcomes are something you would prefer to forget or hoped it had all been a dream. A few examples, of this range from too much consumption of a transformative beverage; an impromptu adult encounter with someone whom you may not have known extensively, or you may have said something to someone to which you now regret. Each of the above situations, although your actions may have not been well conceived, has consequences and I might add, if analyzed more thoroughly you probably would have handled things differently.

This leads me to the actions taken by registered voters across the United States on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. There were 62,829,832.votes cast for Hilary Clinton, the Democratic Candidate for President and 61,488,190 for the Republican Donald J. Trump. Although, Mrs. Clinton exceeded Mr. Trump in garnering more individual votes, he cumulated more electoral votes from the various states across the United States, and thus became the 45th President of our country.

There were many who stayed up into the wee hours of the morning following the poll closings to see the outcome of this historic race. I watched the various telecasts until after 1am, and although, a winner had not been declared, I felt that Mr. Trump was on track to a victory. However, while watching the different networks and hearing the projections from states like Florida, Ohio and later Pennsylvania, you could sense a mood swing of the audience as the news outlets cameras panned the supporters which had gathered at the respective camps for the post-election returns. Trump supporters gave the appearance of a business networking event, not a large gathering initially and not overly festive, however, as the night progressed, and the crowd expanded and became more engaged and responsive to the election updates. Contrarily across town at the Clinton gathering as the evening progressed and the vote tabulations were beginning to tilt towards Mr. Trump, the emotions were evident on the faces of those in the room. The body language had slowly shifted from festive to concerned, then to a praying or willful posture, and lastly, emotional expression.

Leading up to Election Day, this was a hotly contested contest with 17 Republican contenders vying to becoming the 45th president while the Democrats had just a few with Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Trump each becoming the nominees for their respective parties.

On the Democratic side, there was much discussion about how critical the black vote would be in this election. “According, to Gallup, 64 percent of the black voters were registered Democrats. More than one in five Democrats is black, roughly twice the black representation in the adult population. Almost two-thirds of blacks identify as Democrats, with most of the rest identifying as independents. Only five percent of blacks nationwide identify as Republicans.”

President Obama was able to put together a coalition of voters across the country which was comprised of significant number of blacks to secure two terms as president.